Explain the importance of Public Accounts Committee in the Parliament.
Structure:
Introduction: Mention briefly when the Committee was formed and also about the numbers of members in the Committee.
Body: Explain the importance of the PAC in point-wise format.
Conclusion: Mention how the committee ensures accountability and fulfills the aspect of accountability of the Executive to the Legislature
Content:
Introduction:
This committee was set up first in 1921 under the provisions of the Government of India Act of 1919 and has since been in existence. At present, it consists of 22 members (15 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha). The members are elected by the Parliament every year from amongst its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Thus, all parties get due representation in it. The term of office of the members is one year.
The chairman of the committee is appointed from amongst its members by the Speaker.
Body:
Importance of PAC:
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a financial committee constituted every year to examine the annual audit reports of submitted by the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) and reports its finding to the parliament.
PAC acts as the watchdog of the public purse by examining the audit report on appropriation account and finance account.
It scrutinise the appropriation account to verify:
If the funds were legally available.
If a competent authority sanctioned it’s use.
If the rules laid by procedure were followed.
PAC’s function has been sometimes criticised since it does not look into the policy aspect and is only recommending. Yet, PAC has been in establishing financial accountability of the government to the people.
It further establishes the accountability of the government by examining the budgetary appropriations and accounts of the government and Reports of Comptroller and Auditor General (under article 151) on the execution of the projects and programmes by the various ministries.
Examining the demand for excess grants before they are presented to the Parliament for regularisation.
The committee examines public expenditure not only from legal and formal point of view to discover technical irregularities but also from the point of view of economy, prudence, wisdom and propriety to bring out the cases of waste, loss, corruption, extravagance, inefficiency and nugatory expenses.
